


The Least I Can Do, Is Thank You

by cymyguy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, Isolation, Light Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Webcam/Video Chat Sex, in a very soft way this is really not porn, quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28093992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: “I sent you a package this morning,” Hinata says. “It’ll take forever to get there, and you’ll have to pick it up at post and sign for it, okay?”Tobio grunts. “What is it?”“If I was going to tell you I would’ve led with that! Oh, and you have to call me before you open it! Okay? Okaaaay Kageyama? Do not open, call me first. Got that?”Tobio turns back to his food.“I mean it Poutyama! Call me first. Hopefully it’ll get there around your birthday?”“My birthday? That’s two months!”“I told you!”“What the hell are you sending?”“You’ll see! Just forget about it for now.”“Then why did you tell me right now, dumbass!”
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 20
Kudos: 172





	The Least I Can Do, Is Thank You

October 28, 2020  
6:34 am

Has he skipped the last nine months, or does it just feel that way?

Tobio sighs to himself and nudges the thought away. Even after months of training them, these thoughts still try to invade whenever he’s on call with Hinata, which is the least preferable time. His laptop is on the table while Tobio works at the counter preparing breakfast. Hinata is preparing a late lunch back in Japan, and they talk more than look. They’ve gotten so used to the videocalls that they almost act like they’re sharing the same space.

They _act_. Meaning, they’re not actually in the same space. Kageyama has been in Italy for almost a year now. Only this week did he finally get to put in an application for a spot on a waiting list, for Japan to approve his reentering the country. He’s been told not to get hopeful until January.

“I sent you a package this morning,” Hinata says.

Tobio turns, to see that Hinata’s looking into the camera.

“It’ll take forever to get there, and you’ll have to pick it up at post and sign for it, okay?”

Tobio grunts. “What is it?”

“If I was going to tell you I would’ve led with that!”

He clucks his tongue.

“Oh, and you have to call me before you open it! Okay? Okaaaay Kageyama? Do not open, call me first. Got that?”

Tobio turns back to his food.

“I mean it Poutyama! Call me first. Hopefully it’ll get there around your birthday?” he says thoughtfully.

“My birthday? That’s two months!”

“I told you!”

“What the hell are you sending?”

Hinata has sent him at least a dozen packages. At the beginning, when things were bad, Tobio didn’t even hold out hope for the packages. He just wanted to go home. By now he’s settled, or relented, at least, and he looks forward to packages from Hinata, and his family and friends.

“You’ll see! Just forget about it for now.”

“Then why did you tell me right now, dumbass!”

Hinata’s laugh is delayed on the video, but Tobio turns as soon as he hears it. He watches the image freeze up on different frames of his crinkled eyes and tightened cheeks, and cut up the melody of it, and sighs to himself.

They sit down to their meals, which always signals the end of a call.

“Itadakimasu,” they say together.

“Have a good day today.”

“You too. Bye.”

“Bye Kageyama, stay safe!”

~

December 27, 2020

11:22 am

When December hits, Tobio feels like an entire year of his life just disappeared. He remembers last December, when he’d only been in Italy about a month. It was this same temperature, the air smelled the same, everything was the same color, and he feels like he’s right back where he started. Does he even remember what he did during those months between Decembers? The days themselves were slow, especially during the really bad time, but the whole of it had seemed to go by in a blink, and Tobio questions now whether it really happened. The major indication that it did, is how much older he feels.

It was alarming to actually turn a year older this month, and not feel like he’s used it to get stronger. But Hinata told him during his birthday call that Kageyama has gotten stronger, so much stronger, in so many ways. Hinata always knows what to say.

And what to do. Tobio’s parents had the illness early in the year, because of their work travel, and at the time, Miwa was temporarily permanently stuck in Tokyo, but Hinata was only a bike ride away, and after Tobio called and told him, he’d checked on them every single day. He and his mother made meals, and he’d dropped them on the doorstep for as long as the Kageyamas were feeling unwell. He called Tobio after every visit to assure him they wouldn’t be going to the hospital. And Hinata still visits them now. Their families had dinner together in September, with both sisters even, and Tobio felt like he was being conspired against.

Speaking of which, Tobio had an email this morning saying that the mystery package has arrived in the city. He’s on his way to pick it up after gym time, along with some groceries. It’s not a big box, about the span of his hand, yet he has to provide both his visa identification and his passport before they let him take it. As he carries it out he feels a bubble of excitement that surprises him, not having been aware he was anticipating this so much. What would Hinata send him that’s so small and secret?

When he gets home he immediately fires up his laptop. It should be after dinner in Japan, and Hinata had no evening plans that he’d disclosed with Tobio, so it should be a good time to call. He lets it search for the connection as he puts away his shopping, but by the time he’s done Hinata hasn’t picked up and the attempt has dropped. He tries him again, and again it searches until it times out. He tries once more, with the same result.

Tobio pulls leftovers out of his fridge for a quick lunch. That gives it about a twenty minute wait, and then he tries Hinata again. He still doesn’t answer. Yes, almost all their calls these days are scheduled, but Hinata is the one who said to call when he got the package, he didn’t say Tobio would have to wait around to bring it up during regular business hours. And why is Hinata making him do this anyway? What did he _send_ him? Is this his way of toying with him, making him wait even longer as he knows Tobio’s bound by his promise? Tobio scowls as he watches his screen, trying one more time to connect to Hinata. Then he shrugs sharply, and sits down at the table with the box.

He’s opening it. Hinata’s not here, so he won’t be able to do anything about it. And he’s not _that_ good at holding a grudge.

He hadn’t really noticed it at first, but the box is covered in stickers and stamps from various customs locations. And on some strip of space on every side, FRAGILE is stamped in red. Inside the box is a smaller box and a bunch of bubble wrap and paperwork. Inside that box, in a mound of styrofoam, is a tiny white box, with a red bow on top.

Call Tobio a dumbass, but he has no conceivable clue what’s going to be inside as he opens the tiny padded lid. But he knows, as soon as he has, that he should’ve picked up on something, and he’s almost glad Hinata didn’t answer the call, so he can’t hear Tobio’s strangled squeak of a gasp.

Inside the smallest box are three white gemstones attached to a silver ring. He takes it out and holds it between his finger and thumb, turning it before his eyes like he’s discovered a new species of something. Are they—diamonds? They’re all the same size, which is neither big nor small, lined up in a row, held by simple silver brackets. Warmth crawls over his skin, but his insides feel like cold, twisted up rags. Why—Why would Hinata send him…

Does he know why Hinata sent this to him? For some reason, the idea that he could be wrong only strengthens the idea that he could be _right_ , and his stomach flutters so hard it vibrates the rest of him, and he almost loses the ring through his shaky fingers.

Tobio’s laptop screen fills with a grainy picture as his speakers play the little jingle. He jabs the “Answer Call” button before he can think.

Hinata appears.

“What’s up hot stuff? Did you get my package?”

Tobio stares. Hinata’s eyes narrow.

His gasp is much louder than Tobio’s, affronted to a point near hysteria.

“You opened it! Didn’t you! You opened it when I told you not to!”

Hinata slams his fists down on his desk, followed swiftly by his head. He sits up, hands tugging at his hair.

“You—You ruined—my entire proposal! I didn’t even get to say the speech I practiced! HuuAAAH—”

His chair topples backwards and he disappears with it.

Tobio drops the ring down into his palm. He swallows at it. Then he calls:

“Shouyou?”

Hinata’s wide eyes appear above the desk. Then he pulls his chair up and reseats himself. He squeezes his eyes shut, crinkling his forehead, and presses his head into his palm.

“Of course it would happen like this, this year…”

He’s quiet for a long moment. It makes Tobio feel like he doesn’t know what’s happening, and is afraid. That’s not an unfamiliar sensation this year. But then Shouyou looks up, the slightest pink in his cheeks. Tobio’s heart throbs so hard he almost clutches it.

“Um…I was going to propose at the Olympics,” Hinata says. “It would’ve been really cool…But then I didn’t get the chance. And I know, _eventually_ I would, but…”

He looks right through the fuzzy picture, probably pulling up the real blue of Tobio’s eyes in his mind, as Tobio is pulling up the real brown. Hinata drops his gaze and rubs at the back of his neck.

“Just—This year has been hard…”

Tears threaten Tobio. It has been hard. But hearing Hinata say it out loud, in a voice broken up both by weak connection and a hundred emotions, all of which Tobio has felt himself, _that_ is hard.

“And I just decided—You got me through it, with all the calls, at all times of the day. We can’t play but you’ve kept me focused, by comparing our workouts, and giving me extra reasons to push myself, and I really needed those,” he mumbles, “Some days. And cooking together, kind of together, and trusting me to take care of things here, it’s all meant a lot. And everything I’ve done before this year, you’ve gotten me through that too. Tobio.”

Tobio squeezes the ring in his palm.

“The reason I am where I am is because I’ve known you,” Hinata says, “And the least I can do is thank you for that. Um, that’s why I sent the package. I’d like you to have a reminder, while you’re so far away, that I—um—intend to—I want to be committed to you.”

Tobio nods, he understands. Hinata smiles a little. Then, winces a little.

“I know we’re young.”

He doesn’t have to say more. About so many people dying. About not wanting to waste more time. About how they might never return to the way they once were.

Tobio looks down and brings his hands up onto the table. Hinata can probably see the ring in its general shape. Tobio slips it down his finger, where it settles perfectly snug. Of course Hinata would know the size; after Tobio taught him, they had always handled each other’s manicures.

“Do you like that ring?” Hinata smiles and squirms in his seat, at his old desk in his old teenage bedroom.

He’s never in his life pictured himself wearing a diamond ring, even one given to him by Hinata. But he doesn’t want to take it off. He wants people to see it, people he knows and people he doesn’t. They’ll see Hinata, and he’s always wanted to show people Hinata.

“I like it,” he confirms, without taking his eyes off of it. His mother has lots of jewelry, and Tobio knows from her that the clearness of these stones probably means Hinata saved up quite a bit to buy it.

He wishes Hinata could see it better, but he turns his hand around to the screen anyway to let him look. When Hinata smiles and gives a short nod, Tobio’s stomach squirms and his chest swells with warmth that threatens to choke him.

Hinata sighs. “I wish I could’ve come there, to where you are. I could’ve made it so romantic, by showing up at your door—I could’ve asked you in four languages! I practiced.”

“Nothing’s stopping you from doing that,” Tobio points out, shyly, setting his hand on the table and glancing at it. Practice should never go to waste.

“Well—Okay.” He clears his throat. “ _Will you marry me_?”

Tobio has the easiest time understanding, or rather guessing, Hinata’s English. He nods, to show he understood, but also, he realizes, as heat trickles down his neck into his chest, in answer to the question.

Hinata thumps his hand to his heart. “ _Passeresti il resto della vita con me_?”

He thinks on it, mulls over each word, and nods, starting to smile.

“ _Casa comigo_ ,” Shouyou says, cocking his head and giving a smirk.

“ _Claro_.”

Shouyou grins.

“Tobio,” he says, and maybe he’s the one tearing up now. It’s hard to tell on a screen, and Tobio feels that familiar sadness wrench up in his chest.

“Will you let me take care of you for as long as I can? Please be my husband, and let me make you curry, and wake up next to you whenever I can, and play more volleyball with you!”

Tobio nods. He clears his throat a little. “Okay.”

“So easy, Kageyama,” he tries to tease, very softly.

Tobio keeps his lips sealed, content to settle into one of the silences they’ve gotten used to during the long distance. They’ve concluded by now it’s okay to sit quietly, attending to their own things, while the other is just there. There’s no need to speak constantly for the call to be worthwhile. But Hinata does speak again.

“Wait. You don’t have to accept this, as a proper proposal I mean. It’s only the best I can do right now, but later—it could be better.”

“I already accepted.”

“But—” he grasps at air— “If I were able to come there, we could’ve—At least I could’ve kissed you, you didn’t even get that. And we could’ve…you know, kissed more—and all that…”

Tobio scowls. “All that?”

“You know.” He gestures, a vague wave.

“What’s ‘all that’ mean?”

“You know! We would kiss and—you know! I could—”

“Fuck me?”

He slams his face down on the desk. Again.

“I could—make love…” he garbles into the wood. “…to you.”

Tobio’s lips start to tilt. They’ve found that while Shouyou is wholeheartedly shameless in person, and pretty good over the phone too, he gets miserably squeamish during face to face chat. He’s dodged or outright refused every one of Tobio’s attempts at egging him on while they’re talking like this. When Hinata’s head shoots up to glare suddenly, Tobio expertly dissolves his smirk.

“You don’t need to take back the proposal just because of that,” Tobio says.

“Well, I’m glad you accepted—”

His head whips around, and Tobio thinks he might have heard a noise—

“Alright,” Hinata yells, “He accepted, so you can get away from the door now!”

He hears it clearer this time, cheers from Hinata’s family.

“Thank you,” Hinata says exasperatedly, after his mother calls out some congratulatory thing over his sister’s shrieking. It occurs to Tobio then that he may _actually_ have been conspired against at that family dinner. His cheeks color. Hinata covers his burning face with his hand, then runs it up into his hair as he peeks at Tobio again. A smile splits his face.

“I’m really happy,” he says. “And I really wanted to do it now, even if it wasn’t ideal. I didn’t want to wait anymore. But—I don’t know, it feels more—less—It seems like a more hollow gesture,” he decides, “Than I thought it would. Does it feel—not so special, to you?”

Tobio raises his eyebrows. He looks at his ring again ( _his_ , his…), rubs his thumb along the band, looks back at Shouyou as he fights the beginning of a smile. Maybe he’s not excited in the way he suspects he would be, like enough to pick Hinata up and spin him around, or something equally stupid enough to embarrass him for the next ten or twenty years. But he feels content. His stomach only fluttered for a minute when he first opened the box, but now all of him is warm and tingly, like an amazing play has just been pulled off and he was part of it. And of course, Hinata was a part of it too. Waiting, impatiently and a tiny bit hopefully, for a package from Hinata, the shock, awe, of what it was, what it meant, what Hinata said—He thinks this was decent. Pretty good. Really wonderful.

But he’s not going to tell Hinata that, not yet.

Hinata is smiling at his smile, chin resting in his hand, fidgeting but saying nothing. Tobio picks up his laptop and moves to the living room, setting it on the coffee table and pulling that close to the couch, where he half lies, arm on the armrest propping up his head. With his ring hand he scoops up the ball on the floor and holds it to his chest. It feels different under his fingers. That makes his heart skip up excitedly again. Shouyou is still just watching, like he could watch him do nothing for hours.

“I already accepted, so just tell me what you’ll do later, for the rest,” Tobio says. “So I know it’s happening when it does.”

Hinata looks blank for a minute, in the meantime that Tobio’s neck is flushing. But it doesn’t put him off, only makes him raise the ball a little up his chest to hide his smile. Finally Hinata blushes.

“What,” he whines, hand slipping up into his hair and squeezing at it.

“Tell me how you’d make lo—”

“Okay, okay! You have _no_ shame, Kageyama,” he grumbles, glancing around his empty room. “Coretti-kun’s still gone?”

Tobio nods.

“Well you know I can’t completely get rid of my family, right? What do you want to hear, anyway? How about you tell me what you want, so that I can—”

Tobio shakes his head, grinning. Hinata gives him a long, hard look, then his shoulders slump.

“Bastard,” he grumbles.

Tobio still likes to yell and talk over Hinata, but he’s getting more of a handle on other tactics as well to have his way, like being quiet. It takes only a few seconds of this before Shouyou will give in to him, as if he were a cute animal.

“Well, if I could’ve, I would’ve shown up at your door when you weren’t expecting it,” Hinata says. “You would’ve been so excited like ‘waaaah, oh Shouyou I knew you’d come’—”

“I would not,” he interjects.

“And you probably would’ve spun me around or something and totally embarrassed yourself!”

Tobio growls behind his volleyball.

“And I would’ve brought things and cooked for you, and I definitely would’ve got down on one knee, which I didn’t even get to do…”

“I don’t need to know what you didn’t get to do,” Tobio says. “I asked what are you going to—”

“I’m getting to it, sheesh! We haven’t even established where this would take place, aren’t you going to give me a setting to—”

“Quit stalling.”

“Well is it happening in Italy or is it happening here, or what?”

“In a bed. Start there.”

He taps his chin. “Yours or mine?”

“Ours, because we’re going to be—”

Tobio cuts himself off, and they both blush, Tobio down through his chest, Shouyou up to his ears.

“Well, probably not right then, but, yeah, sometime…” Hinata rubs at his neck and sighs again. He scrunches his nose. “You really want all the—details?”

Tobio nods emphatically.

“I can see how red you are right through your shirt.”

He scowls and lifts a hand to cover his chest, but it ends up floating to the left and down, and rubbing there, where he’s beating fast. Something crumbles away from Hinata’s face. Tobio is reminded of when he was coaxed into playing a drinking game over chat once; they watched Olympic film and took shots for aces, and it was fun until it was sad and they’d both drank more of a bottle than one should, and sat on the couch giving each other the kind of desperate looks they normally had the self-control to hide. Shouyou’s giving him that kind of look now.

“It would’ve been a lot easier if I could just have done it,” he says, low. “How can I—tell you how I would kiss you?”

Tobio smiles and drags his hand over his face, reddening all over again.

“You just do it, dumbass.”

Hinata heaves his biggest sigh yet.

“Alright.”

He clears his throat. Tobio resists rolling his eyes.

“Obviously I’ll k—kiss you, when I see you…On the lips. A lot. Probably.” A smile passes over his mouth like the sun skating over the ocean. “Yeah. I’ll hug you and kiss you and tell you how you’ve gotten more beautiful and handsome every day you’ve been gone—”

He chuckles as Tobio gives him a glare, flushing hot.

“But you have,” he insists, “To me. I’ll have to look at you a long time, to make sure I don’t miss anything.”

Tobio’s hand goes up before he can think about it, brushing his own bangs to the side a little, like Hinata does when he’s intent on looking at him. That’s nothing new. A smile quirks Hinata’s lips, and he blinks a few times before continuing.

“Then I’ll lay you down and kiss you more,” he says.

“Where?”

“Hmm…Your forehead. Your nose. That new scar above your eye.” He snorts.

Tobio tsks at the memory. He cut his head open on a cupboard door, as he was on the phone with Hinata this summer. Hinata was being very _distracting_ , at the time. Tobio shifts his legs around a little.

“I’ll kiss your chin, and your cheeks, and that spot behind your ear, where you like…Okay?”

Shouyou smiles softly, and Tobio wiggles deeper into the couch, nodding.

“And I’ll kiss your neck—And, ah…If you give me your hand, I’ll do that thing you like, where I—trace down your fingers, and—and kiss—your palms?”

Hinata peeks at him, pink-faced, and Tobio nods.

“And I’ll be on top of you, so you know—don’t be shy.” He tries to grin, mouth wobbling a little.

“I won’t,” Tobio says.

“No? You…miss me?” His voice pitches ever so slightly. “Are you gonna do that thing, where your eyes get darker…?”

Tobio’s breath leaves a little condensation on his volleyball.

“You want to feel me against you?” Shouyou whispers, not so seductively as self-consciously. But Tobio lifts his hips off the couch anyway, just a tiny bit.

“Yes.” He nods.

“Can I kiss you more?”

He nods.

“Kiss your face, all over it, around your eyes and your mouth,” he murmurs. “Uh—Ahem—I’ll kiss your neck too, then your hands again, your knuckles, and you’ll feel me against you, how much I want you—I want you,” he chuckles, giggles out, embarrassed as the thick, heavy truth of it hits them both.

It’s sad. It’s frustrating. It aches, and warms and melts the ache away, and aches again, in cycles, as Tobio is away. Sometimes it would be enough to just have anything. Sometimes he doesn’t want to accept any less than everything.

“I’ll put—hand—you—”

Tobio lifts his head to glare at the video. Hinata is silent as they wait for it to catch up.

“Feel you like that,” Hinata says finally, and air gushes through Tobio’s lips as he discreetly palms his sweatpants.

“Touching…?” Hinata saw his shoulder shift. His hands remain where Tobio can see them, but Tobio doesn’t mind that he doesn’t participate. He’s still feeling half-hearted about it himself. He nods vaguely to Hinata and rubs at himself again, encouraging the heat to rise.

“I’ll touch you like that,” Hinata mumbles, putting his chin in his hand. Oddly, knowing that Tobio is being active on the other side of the chat seems to ease Hinata’s nerves rather than exacerbate them. “You’ll get tight, in your pants—”

Tobio’s eyes flicker to his screen.

“Then I’ll be on top of you again, against you. It’ll be warm, and slow. Slow, Kageyama.”

He pushes his hand down his stomach and inches it over his hardening outline, turning it into a squeeze down near his base, slow, and a shiver prickles up his body.

“I’ll feel under your shirt, make sure you haven’t been slacking off…”

He glances. “You will?”

Hinata nods. “I’ll rub circles on your stomach, and pull your collar down and kiss your neck, and chest.”

“You don’t want any of my clothes off?” he smirks.

“Well, coming from there to here I thought you might be cold. It’ll be winter, or maybe early spring. So we’ll make sure you’re good and warm first.”

That shuts Tobio up. For a second.

“You don’t need to keep yours on,” he huffs. He wants permission to picture Hinata.

Hinata uses his hand to hide half of his smile. “I guess not…so you’ll take mine off.”

He nods readily and gazes at the ceiling, pressing his cock to his belly.

“You better not have slacked off either.”

“You’ll have to see for yourself,” Hinata chuckles. “You want to look at me?”

He nods.

“And touch me?”

He turns and looks into the camera, forgetting to nod, but Hinata gets the message. I’m waiting for you, Shouyou wants to say, Tobio can see it all over his pixelated face. But instead he says:

“I’m gonna pull you out of your pants, mm…Stay on top of you. Rub on you, and kiss you, and you get me ready. Go slow, but don’t waste time.”

Tobio catches back his groan, fisting himself over his sweats and jerking as much as he can. Hinata is quiet, and Tobio shoots a look over, not sure if the image is freezing or if Hinata’s just watching the struggle of his upper body. He clutches the volleyball to his chest, stilling and waiting for Hinata to continue.

“You want—ide—” The speakers twang out a long note as the connection struggles to capture Hinata’s words. They sit in silence for some seconds. Hinata starts to crumble back into a blush. He’s so cute, still. Suddenly Tobio brings his other hand up and hugs the volleyball in both arms, leaving himself aching for weight between his legs.

“Did you—hear that part?”

“No, sorry.”

“Ah—Um, I said—I’ll—You want me to ride you? Let me take care of you?”

Tobio sighs, feeling himself sink into the cushions.

“Take care of me,” he demands. “You promised you would.”

“I did promise. I do.”

He has to imagine the smoldering gold of Hinata’s eyes that the video can’t deliver for him.

“—could just— _once_ , in a—year…”

He pretends he didn’t hear this, though he can piece it together since it’s a shared thought.

“Lay back, Tobio,” Hinata says clearly. “I’ll take care of you.”

He keeps his eyes glued to the screen, turns his hips and rubs his front against the back of the couch, with even less than half a heart.

“You can give me it all,” Hinata pants, between emotion and eagerness. “I’ll take you in—I’ll go so slow—”

Tobio groans and flops flat on his back, nodding.

“You kiss me. I’ll make you want so much more.”

“Kay.”

“I’ll ask you to be my husband again, and again—and again,” he smiles, “And you’ll say yes until you can’t say it anymore.”

He nods once, and his chin falls onto his chest.

“Let me hold your hand. Your left hand.”

He tightens it against the ball, exhaling deeply, leaving a numbness over much of his body.

“I’ll feel so warm around you, and you’ll hold me close, yeah? Hold me tight, Kageyama, you better not let go, not even when you start to—”

Tobio’s ring brushes over the ball one more time.

“Thank you, Hinata.”

“Kageyama?”

He falls into sleep with the voice floating above him, like still clouds with the light making holes through them. In sleep, he’s not really here, so he can be wherever Hinata is.

**Author's Note:**

> The title was taken from "Thank You" by Pentatonix on their newest Christmas album, I thought it fit nicely for kagehina T^T :  
> "Thank you for your smile, it's warmer than the fire  
> Your gentle laughter is sweeter than a choir  
> I can't believe this year you got me through  
> The least I can do is thank you."


End file.
